Power over Ethernet (PoE) standards have made it possible to deliver power to networkdevices along the same Ethernet cable used for data, liminating the need to provide awall wart۪ power cube for each device.

Network power is thereby consolidated at the Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE) in the data-center, which has tremendous benefits of lowering cost, simplifying infrastructure and providing backup power management.

Overall power management has been crudely addressed in previous-generation PoE clients via power classification, but these have largely been limited and static solutions.